Laurel blinked. The ups and downs of the night, reuniting with James, meeting everyone, and having her mind blown over and over was starting to wear on her.
She yawned, scrubbing her eyes.
“Ah, shit. It’s practically dawn. There are a million rooms here if you want me to show you to one.” James waved toward the balcony above that apparently led to private quarters.
She looked to Jace. Whether he could feel the apprehension radiating off of her or he felt the same, he shook his head no subtly.
“I really, really appreciate the offer, but I’m not comfortable in a place like this.” Laurel fidgeted, toying with the hem of her sweater. “It’s incredible and you’re all so lovely and kind, but it reminds me of party houses we used to be taken to—”
James’s husband, Neil, cursed beneath his breath and James waved away the rest of her statement. “Nope. No way. We’re not going to make you relive that. I have a much better idea.”
He turned to Jordan. “I’ll take them to Hot Rides. Since Joy, Walker, and Dane moved into the bigger place Dave just finished building for them, there’s an empty tiny home on site. It has two bedrooms so—as long as Kennedy clears him and my sis and Jace are cool with it—Nolan can stay with them. The Hot Rides will be happy to help him watch their backs for a while. They’ll be as safe as here but more comfortable.”
“A damn fine suggestion.” Jordan nodded. “For the record, my spouses and I have a place there too. It’s a motorcycle garage. My wife, Wren, is their welder. We stay there most times during the week so I can help Nolan with shifts too.”
“For the record, he’s going to be fine. Nothing some anti-inflammatories and a few days won’t fix.” Kennedy chose then to finish her exam of Nolan and patted his cheek, making him grunt. She returned to her perch beside the man with the wave shaved into his onyx hair. Sola and her buddy Aarav studied Laurel with an expression she took for resignation and maybe empathy. She figured Jordan always got his way.
“Wait. What?” Laurel looked to Jace then back to James. A house? Nolan living with them? Everyone else bunking there had multiple spouses too? It was a lot to digest. So she started with the simple facts first. “We can’t stay here. We have to go to work tomorrow. We don’t get vacation time and if we bail with no notice we’ll be fired for sure. We need our jobs.”
“Laurel-loo.” James winced. “You can’t go back. We pissed Draven off big time and we’re not going to stop with kicking this one hive. Not when we have hard evidence about what’s going on and, well, uh…” He studied his cute yellow sneakers.
“What your brother is dancing around is that we really need you to be informants if we’re going to shut this shit down for good.” Jordan spread his legs wider, as if this time he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
The gates might be open, but Laurel felt the walls closing in around her regardless. Jace must have too. He sprang to his feet and said, “No. Absolutely not.”
“Tell me again why you two were lurking in the shadows at Heels tonight?” Jordan asked with a single raised brow. Laurel knew his type—cool on the outside and fiery down deep—they were the most dangerous.
But he was making it hard to argue.
“Right. Okay. I see what you mean. Idowant to help and keep anyone else from going through what we have. I’d like for this to be over. For good.” Laurel sighed. “Is this the best way?”
Jace whipped around and stared at her like he had when she’d proposed running off to Heels earlier before slicing his hands through the air. “Are you serious right now? You’d throw away our jobs, our home—shitty as it is, it’s ours—and the future we were getting so close to, for the promise of something we both know is fucking impossible? Cops haven’t ever nailed that bastard. Why would your brother’s friends be able to pull it off?”
Okay. That was legit too. “Jace is right, you know. There were plenty of times police officers and politicians laughed at the idea of getting caught, never mind stopped. The kind of money Draven has makes him exempt from the law.”
“Funny thing about that,” Nolan said. “We don’t operate within the rules either.”
Aarav nodded and spoke up for the first time. “This is exactly why we do what we do. To put things right when they’re unjust. To take back power when the balance has shifted.”
Marcus agreed. “If you work with us, we won’t stop until Draven and his organization are no longer a problem. Not only for you, but for everyone else too. It’s the only way you’ll ever really be able to stop looking over your shoulder.”
That sounded like heaven. No, like peace. And it had been a long damn time since Laurel thought that was possible to have. She looked up at Jace, her eyes wide, silently begging him to see things their way.
“What if this blows back on us? I don’t give a shit about myself, but I swear, if anything happens to you, I’m not going to stop at knocking people out.” He clenched his fists and swung around, glaring at every last person around them, James and Nolan included.
Laurel stood and approached Jace from behind. She put her arms around him, laid her palms flat on his chest and her cheek on his back. She held him until his breaths slowed and grew less ragged. She went on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “We’re going to be okay, Jace. This is the future we didn’t know we could have. Everything could change for us and for so many other people. It’s worth the risk.”
“How are we going to afford this place?” Jace looked over his shoulder, then back to Jordan. “We have a little bit saved up, but not much and Laurel was going to use it for college. It’s going to take a minute to get work. Are there any restaurants around? Or maybe I could gig? I play guitar and sing. I’m pretty sure I don’t totally suck.”
“It’s okay, Jace—” Laurel was about to offer up her college fund.
“Oh. That’s not an issue.” Jordan waved their concerns aside. “Being an informant pays better than most of the jobs in Middletown, the place James is proposing for you. And the house we have there is empty at the moment. The Powertools, James’s construction buddies, use it as a model for people wanting to hire them to build tiny homes, or she-sheds, or whatever.”
“Thank you, but I don’t really like the idea of being beholden to anyone else.” Laurel recoiled, but she only knocked into Nolan, who had also risen. The warm, solid mass of him didn’t make her feel any less trapped. Jace was shaking his head too.
“I can understand where you’re coming from.” Jordan paused. “As I said, you will be paid members of our team. Your insights and information are very valuable and you’ll be compensated well for sharing them. But if you like, Devra—the wife of the owner of Hot Rides, where you’ll be staying—owns a restaurant in town. She’s always looking for reliable servers, and my husband probably has use for a musician.”
Jace paused but still seemed skeptical. “Does he travel for work? I won’t leave Laurel alone at night.”